


between two lungs

by lostariels



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Assassination Attempt(s), Doctor Kara Danvers, F/F, First Meetings, Flirting, Fluff, Hospitals, Meet-Cute, Minor Injuries, Surgery, Trapped, paramedic lena luthor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:41:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21740341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostariels/pseuds/lostariels
Summary: “Right, Sam, let’s get him inside.”As Kara stepped off to the side, Sam winced slightly and gestured towards the ambulance, to her partner who was standing beside the patient with a stony look on her face, shadows pooling in the hollows of the side of her face, giving her a contemptuous look.“What are you both waiting for?” Kara impatiently asked, her brow furrowing into a scowl as irritation flared up within her, “get him out of the ambulance. I need to get him inside. Now.”“Her hand is inside his chest!”
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 37
Kudos: 1199





	between two lungs

The ambulance sirens wailed closer and closer to National City General Hospital, cutting through the sound of traffic and the city before it raced into the entrance to the hospital and came to a screeching halt outside the Emergency Room. Red and blue lights painted an eerie flickering colour over the grey building, before the driver’s side was thrown open and a tall woman in uniform slid out as the hospital doors parted to reveal a doctor in scrubs.

The paramedic noticed her and brusquely yanked open the back doors of the ambulance as she spoke, revealing the cramped interior bathed in the sickly glow of fluorescent lights. Another paramedic stood at the side of the gurney, tense and glowering from what little Kara could see of her from the side.

“Patient is a thirty-three-year-old male. We’re looking at a sucking chest wound, and … well, you’re not going to believe this but … it’s- there’s something alien inside him.”

Kara’s eyes widened as she inched closer to the back of the ambulance, staring at the young paramedic at the patient’s side, while the older woman hurriedly informed her, her voice coloured with disbelief. Mouth opening and closing, Kara sharply looked at her.

“You said alien?”

Shoulders rising and falling, the paramedic gave her a helpless look, brown eyes incredulous and frantically worried. “He was- he was there to kill my partner. He had something strapped to his chest and it- it sort of … malfunctioned. I don’t really know what happened. But now it’s  _ inside _ his chest.”

“Okay, what’s your name?”

“Arias. Sam Arias.”

“Right, Sam, let’s get him inside.”

As Kara stepped off to the side, Sam winced slightly and gestured towards the ambulance, to her partner who was standing beside the patient with a stony look on her face, shadows pooling in the hollows of the side of her face, giving her a contemptuous look.

“What are you both _waiting_ _for?”_ Kara impatiently asked, her brow furrowing into a scowl as irritation flared up within her, “get him _out_ of the ambulance. I need to get him inside. _Now.”_

“Her hand is  _ inside _ his chest!”

There was a momentary pause, a hushed silence descending over the chaotic hospital and bustling city, and Kara’s mouth wordlessly opened and closed as she stood there in her scrubs, looking at Sam, who had spoken, before her eyes slid to the other paramedic. For a split-second, nobody moved or said anything, until a splutter worked its way up Kara’s throat and came spilling out of her mouth, choked with shock.

“I’m sorry, her  _ what?” _

“He has a  _ sucking chest wound,” _ the paramedic inside the ambulance exclaimed in a clipped manner, anger and tension colouring her words. “I tried to tamponade the wound with gauze and pressure but … well, this is the only way I could stop the bleeding. Now, can you go and find a doctor and get some  _ help _ . Please.”

Pride rankling slightly, Kara drew herself up to her full height, chest puffed up slightly, and gestured nonchalantly at the navy scrubs she was wearing. “I  _ am _ a doctor. Doctor Danvers.”

“Well, can you give me a hand then, Doc? Quite literally. I can’t  _ move _ when I’m wrist-deep between someone’s  _ lungs. _ Someone’s going to need to give us a hand getting the gurney out.”

“Right, yes, of course,” Kara stammered, “let me- I’ll take this end. Sam, you can get the head, and …”

“Lena.”

Nodding, Kara gave her a solemn look, “Lena, I’m going to need you to straddle the patient so we can wheel you outside. I can’t risk you removing your hand just yet, but we’ll sort it out in a moment.”

With something resembling a plan, Kara turned to look at a few of the interns that had trickled out, answering their pages, and she quickly picked one from the bunch. “Doctor Nal, with me.”

The young woman’s face lit up as she quickly hurried to Kara’s side, excited at the prospect of joining in on the action. She stood off to one side as Sam helped boost Lena onto the gurney, straddling the patient without removing her hand from his chest cavity, and then they carefully manoeuvred them both out of the back of the ambulance.

The Emergency Room was a bustle of activity, beds occupied by patients with broken arms and deep cuts that required stitches, doctors with stethoscopes pressed to chests and nurses checking charts. Kara cut a path through the place, eyes tracking the procession with curiosity, before she directed them into a trauma room and Nia drew the blinds for privacy.

“Doctor Nal, how’s his respiratory efforts?”

There was a momentary pause as Kara pulled on a pair of gloves, latex snapping against her skin, before she glanced back over her shoulder and raised her eyebrows at the young doctor with the stethoscope pressed against the unconscious man’s chest. Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth as he lay pale on the gurney, his bloody chest exposed with the paramedic’s hand disappearing into the gaping hole.

“Absent breath sounds on the right. There’s air bubbling at the site of the wound.”

Kara looked at the paramedic - Lena - taking in the blood-stained uniform and then starting as she got her first full look at her face. Lena’s clenched jaw was red and already mottled green and blue with fresh bruises, her cheek split and bleeding and her left eye swollen nearly shut. 

“Oh, you’re hur-”

“It’s nothing.”

Mouth snapping closed, Kara nodded, glancing at Nia. “Right, well, let’s intubate him. And place an occlusive dressing over the wound … once we get that hand out.”

With a derisive snort, Lena gave her a droll look, “that would be splendid, Doctor.”

“Okay, well, let me just take a look and we’ll get right to it.”

A nurse had started padding in surgical cloths around the site of the chest wound, leaving a small window of red-painted skin around the gaping hole and the slender wrist snaking into it, and Kara gingerly peeled them back with some apprehension, getting a better look at the site of injury.

Her stomach lurched slightly with an unusual twist of nausea and Kara’s expression darkened as she steadied herself, feeling a little unsteady on her feet. A perplexed look on her face, she swallowed thickly and gruffly cleared her throat, trying to retain her composure as the strange weakness washed over her again, a little stronger as she stood at the patient’s bedside. 

“Sorry, let me just- I’ll come around the other side. Better angle.”

Rounding the end of the gurney, Kara felt the rush of weakness abate for a moment, feeling a little hot beneath the collar of her scrubs, and sidled up beside Lena. The feeling almost doubled as she stood beside her, reaching out to feel her hand beneath the bulge of skin. 

“Are you okay?” Lena blurted out, “you look a bit-”

Sagging as her knees buckled, Kara reached out to steady herself and felt her hand connect with something soft and warm, with an odd, distinct feeling of being wet as a wave of vertigo made her vision spin. Drawing in a shallow, ragged gasp, she fell against the gurney and managed to catch herself with her left hand before crashing to the floor in an embarrassing display of uncharacteristic clumsiness, a warm arm suddenly wrapping around her waist and holding her up.

“Oh God, I think she’s fainted,” came Nia’s distant, panicked voice.

Kara felt a prickling heat sting her skin, her feet barely under her as she pitched forward against the gurney, her face pressing into the antiseptic smelling surgical cloths spread over the man’s stomach. Voices swam over her head as she ground her teeth together, bewilderment and pain blending into a haze as she steeled herself.

“I’m … fine,” she managed to rasp, her forehead beaded with sweat as she pushed herself upright, swallowing the urge to vomit as black spots danced across her vision. “I just-”

“You put your hand inside him!” Lena bitingly told her as she propped Kara upright against her shoulder.

Blinking rapidly as she tried to clear her head and steady herself, Kara’s blue eyes widened with mortification as she took in the sight before her. As she’d reached out and started to collapse forward, her hand had continued on its trajectory towards the hole in the man’s chest, and the thing she’d caught her balance on had been  _ his chest. _ Or rather the  _ hole _ , as her hand had slid right in alongside the paramedic’s, fingertips grazing something solid lodged deep inside.

“Oh no. Oh God, no, this is bad,” Kara stammered as she stood with her hand buried up to her wrist, lodged deep within his chest cavity, between his lungs.

“You think?”

“Nia, I need you to page Doctor Danvers  _ immediately.” _

The intern scrambled for her pager and fled the room in a hurry, a stricken look on her face that made Kara wince at how badly she’d managed to mess up. Sam was standing on the opposite side of the gurney, mouth open and a helpless look on her face as doctor and paramedic stood shoulder to shoulder, hands deep in a man’s chest.

“I thought  _ you _ were Doctor Danvers!” Lena said in her ear.

Feeling shaky, Kara turned her head slightly, breathing in the freshly laundered smell of Lena’s uniform, mingling with the coppery smell of blood and the distinct hospital odour of death and stale air. She felt a laugh bubble up inside her, getting caught in her throat as she clamped her lips together and grimaced with pain at the sensation of skin being flayed from her body.

“I ...  _ am. _ It’s my … sister.”

“Are you sure you’re a  _ real _ doctor?”

Gritting her teeth, Kara swallowed, her mouth dry and throat hoarse. “Of  _ course _ I am! It’s not the blood, it’s- you said … you said it’s …  _ alien?” _

“Yes,” Sam interrupted, running a trembling hand over her haggard face, a weary slump to her shoulders. “He came out of nowhere. His chest was glowing and he was- he was blowing things up. He just … started  _ attacking. _ Got in a few good punches on Lena before she slammed him in the chest, and then- well, you can  _ see _ what happened then. That- that  _ thing _ just caved his chest in and her hand was stuck. It hasn’t exploded since but-”

“Glowing?” Kara hoarsely interrupted, whey-faced and wild-eyed, her head beating rapidly in her chest. “Glowing how? What colour was he glowing? What do you mean by  _ explode?” _

Biting back an impatient sigh, Lena made a sound of irritation at the back of her throat. “Green! He was glowing green. His chest was all lit up and shooting beams of Kryptonite-”

_ “Kryptonite?” _

Scoffing, Lena rolled her eyes, shifting her grip on Kara, hand still pressed against her lower back for support. “From Krypton. It’s their weakness; those supers.”

“Oh … well, you seem to know a lot about it.”

“My brother had a bit of an obsession,” Lena replied in a clipped tone.

They descended into silence, with Kara swallowing the urge to let out a groan of pain, her mind reeling from the shock that Kryptonite was buried in this man’s chest and her hand was touching it. Fear ran down her spine, a cold feeling of dread that made her throat constrict, heart thumping loudly in her chest as she silently urged her sister to hurry.

The tension in the room was thick and building, Lena rigid and seeming to radiate anger, Sam restless and brimming with concern, and Kara was still wavering, her whole body on fire and her limbs weighed down heavily as the Kryptonite weakened her.

“So … is this like … normal for your job?” Kara conversationally asked.

“No,” Lena quietly laughed, “I’m not much in the habit of shoving my hands into patients. What about you?”

“I mean, I  _ am _ a cardiothoracic surgeon, so it kind of is part of the job description. Normally I wait to open them up first though.”

“Always a smart option.”

“Mm. So … are you new around here? I’ve never seen you before.”

Making a low sound of exasperation at the back of her throat, Lena sighed and turned her head slightly to give Kara a grim smile. “Just moved to National City.”

“Oh. Well, at least we’re giving you a bit of an exciting welcome.”

It was five minutes later when Alex burst in, white lab coat flapping around her, dark eyes wide and startled by the sight before her, Nia meekly following behind. Alex paused in the doorway for a moment, before her lips parted and she let out a small sound of surprise and rushed the rest of the way in.

“Vitals?”

Ashen-faced and mildly embarrassed, Kara gave her a grim smile. “Tachycardic in the one-forties. B.P. holding in the nineties.”

“Let me take a look.”

“He’s got Kryptonite in his chest, Alex,” Kara muttered, her voice low and full of warning. 

Alex’s slight stumble in pace wasn’t noticeable to anyone buy Kara as a flicker of understanding crossed her face, her brown eyes widening imperceptibly with panic and worry for her younger sister. Clearing her throat, Alex quickly snapped on a pair of gloves and moved towards the trio.

“Right, so, can either of you remove your hand?”

“He might … blow up.”

Nodding, Alex met Kara’s eyes for a moment, giving her a half-hearted smile and a small nod of encouragement. “Well … it looks like you’re both coming right on up to the O.R. with me.”

“The  _ O.R.?”  _ Lena groaned, “we’re only halfway through our shift! We don’t have time to spend eight hours in surgery.”

“Honey, you’re done for the day, even if that hand comes out right now,” Sam snorted, “you might want to get a head CT.”

“I don’t need a head CT.”

At Lena’s scoff, Kara glanced at her, her face taut with pain yet spasming with humour as she let out a strained laugh. “You really  _ should _ get a CT.”

“Can we just get him up to surgery so I can leave?”

With a lot of muttering, shuffling about and awkward manoeuvring, they finally managed to get the gurney out the door, with Kara and Lena gingerly walking alongside it. Kara’s chest was pressed up against Lena’s back, and she loomed over her by a few inches, her hand lightly brushing the paramedics waist as she tried to keep pace, ensuring that she didn’t jerk her hand inside the patient’s chest and accidentally rupture his heart or detonate whatever kind of Kryptonite device was inside him.

Up through the hospital floors and down wide hallways the small group travelled, Sam left behind in the lobby to wait for her partner to emerge with both hands free. Taken into an operating room, Lena and Kara were both covered in surgical gowns and masks and caps, as best as they could with a hand each in his chest, and Kara had to fight the urge to vomit into her mask as she stared through the window and watched her sister scrub in, lathering up her hands with Nia beside her. 

Kara was slightly peeved that she’d made such a clumsy mistake and cost herself this surgery, although she wasn’t sure she’d be able to endure the effects of the Kryptonite for so long anyway as she tried to remove the device and make sure everything was where it was supposed to be in his chest cavity. It was all she could do to stand beside Lena, her body angled slightly so that they could both comfortably fit, the young woman pressed up against her, a lingering sweetness of perfume cutting through the sharp, disinfected smell of the theatre.

Gleaming scalpels and clamps were laid out on trays, surgical nurses and an anesthesiologist preparing the unconscious man as they draped cloths over him and attached an oxygen mask. By the time Alex stepped into the room, dressed for surgery as a nurse helped her don some gloves, the patient was under and there was an atmosphere of tension in the room as everyone waited to begin. It filled Kara with the usual jolt of adrenaline, the intoxicating feeling of being able to help someone with her capable hands, and she watched with mournful regret as she found herself on the sidelines this time. It had been a long time since she’d been in an O.R. and hadn’t lifted a scalpel or so much as held a clamp.

“Okay, is everyone ready?” Alex asked, a weary note of resignation to her voice as she stepped up to the operating table. “Good. Let’s see what we have here then. Scalpel.”

The O.R. was equipped for an image-guided surgery, using the MRI arms to help guide Alex through the surgery, checking for any bleeds in the man’s chest, as well as where the two women’s hands were inside his chest, and she carefully elongated the wound in his chest to allow room for Kara to work her hand free when it was determined safe.

The room was quiet, except for Alex’s murmured orders and occasional comment to Nia, who watched on with wide eyes, while Kara tried her best to stay upright, feeling a little bit weaker with each passing minute, even though she’d managed to fortify herself at the same time. Time seemed to creep forward, as it was wont to do during surgery, and they’d barely made any progress in removing even one of their hands before an hour had slipped by. 

“Okay, Lena, you’re pushing the device into his Brachiocephalic Artery, which has plugged the bleeding for now. You need to keep pressure on it, or he’ll bleed out. Kara … you’re keeping Lena’s hand wedged in place, so you need to be very,  _ very _ careful when removing yours, okay? It shouldn’t be much longer, and then I’ll have you out. Just bear with me, can you do that?”

“Mhm.”

“God, why does he even has this  _ thing _ strapped to his chest anyway?” Alex muttered, her anger evident in her voice.

Lena let out a scoffing snort of laughter from beside Kara, her shoulders rising and falling with the effort. “That would be my brother’s fault.”

“Brother?”

“He sent this maniac to kill me, I’m sure.”

There was a lull in the conversation for a moment as everyone absorbed the piece of information, before Kara shifted behind her and hesitantly cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, your- your  _ brother _ is trying to … kill you?”

“Lena Luthor. I’m sure you know the surname.”

_ “Oh.” _

“Yes, I thought as much.”

“I- I didn’t know he had a sister.”

“I assure you, we don’t have much contact.”

Clearing her throat, Alex asked for a clamp and peeled back a section of the patient’s chest, ribcage flayed open to expose Lena’s bloody hand and Kara’s gloved one resting on top, looking snug between the expanding lungs. His heart had been pushed further to the left of his chest cavity and was beating steadily amid the mass of metal and the eerie green light that his organs were bathed in. Even the sight made Kara feel sick.

“Right, on my count. Nobody move, unless I tell them to. Okay?” Alex sternly warned.

It was slow work, Alex’s voice calm as she murmured soft instructions to Kara, telling her to twist her hand slightly to the right, angling her wrist up slightly, ordering Lena to keep a steady pressure on the Kryptonite device. Sweat beaded on everyone’s foreheads, a thick cloud of unease palpable in the operating theatre as each moment that passed was another where this small alien device could inexplicably explode. Although Kara guessed that the mechanism had been broken when crushed, leaving fractured fragments of the crystal in his chest, and the device broken. Still, they’d sent whispers to clear out the rest of the floor, as a precaution.

“Okay, easy now. Easy. Go slow, Kara.”

“Yeah, I know,” she feebly replied, eyes squeezing shut for a moment as she grit her teeth, trying to stop the tremors that wracked her body.

And then she resumed, slowly but surely inching her hand out, until her hand slowly lifted off Lena’s, the softness of her skin leaving Kara feeling strangely cold for a moment, before she took a tentative step away from the operating table. Hand held up, painted red with blood, Kara felt a little steadier as she watched Alex hunch over the unconscious man, with Lena’s hand still between his lungs.

“Okay. You can go and get yourself cleaned up. Get some rest-”

“I’m scrubbing in,” Kara interrupted Alex, feeling a burning sense of determination after her prior faux pas.

“No, you need to-”

“I’m _ fine.” _

_ “Doctor Danvers. _ This is my O.R. and you will  _ not _ be scrubbing in on my surgery. You’re obviously not … feeling well today. Go and  _ rest. _ ”

Spluttering in surprise, Kara clamped her mouth shut and gave her sister a petulant look, before she turned and made her way out of the theatre. Standing before the long stretch of sinks, Kara felt marginally better with some distance between herself and the Kryptonite and turned on a tap as she stared through the window and into the theatre.

Shedding the gloves, she washed the ring of blood around her wrist and lingered in the dimly lit room as she watched the surgery progress. After a while, she slipped out, feeling the need for some sunshine to bolster her strength, stopping by the waiting room to visit Sam and give her an update on her way outside. 

The paramedic was all too eager to accept Kara’s offer of accompanying her to the coffee stand outside, where Kara bought three cups, handing one off to Sam as she clutched the other two. Drinking in the sunlight, she felt invigorated and strong, the grey pallor of her skin dissipating as a healthy glow suffused her face. Drawing in a deep breath, she let out a satisfied sigh and took a sip of coffee. 

They took their time heading back inside, before parting ways again, as Kara left Sam in the waiting room again in favour of heading back up to the O.R. to see how things were progressing. Hovering in the hallway, clutching both coffees in hand, Kara used her sensitive hearing to eavesdrop on the surgery, listening to her sister’s calm instructions and orders.

Hovering outside for another forty minutes, Kara surreptitiously lifted her glasses and kept the coffees steaming, until eventually, there was a murmur of relieved triumph and Alex’s confirmation that Lena was free to go. Straightening up, Kara reclined against the wall, trying to compose herself into a relaxed air of patient ignorance, her heart leaping in her chest as she waited for the strange paramedic to emerge. Her curiosity had been piqued with Lena, a thousand burning questions about her family, her job, the attempt on her life and more, right on the tip of her tongue.

Listening to the sound of running water and the weary footsteps towards the door, Kara glanced up as the door was pulled open and Lena stood framed against the dimness. A smile brightened and softened Kara’s face, eyes crinkling behind her glasses and a confident set to her shoulders as she pushed off the wall.

“Hi!”

“Oh, Doctor Danvers,” Lena murmured in surprise, “I hope you’re feeling better.”

Lips quirking up into a lopsided smile, Kara shrugged half-heartedly, cheeks reddening slightly, “ah, yeah, I’m fine. I just- I was feeling a bit under the weather today.”

Arching an eyebrow, Lena cocked her head to the side. “Isn’t that a bit risky? To expose your sick patients to more sickness.”

“I- well … yes, but it wasn’t- it was, uh … cramps?”

“Oh. Right, well, bad luck I guess.”

“Yeah,” Kara muttered, feeling her cheeks flush with further embarrassment at her bad excuse for her sudden dizzy spell. “I, uh, I brought you coffee. Thought you might be a bit tired from standing for so long. It should keep you going while I sort out that pretty face of yours.”

With a quiet snort of laughter, Lena slowly ambled towards her, reaching out to take the hot coffee that Kara held out with a hopeful expression on her face. Taking a sip, Lena gave her a level stare over the rim of her coffee cup, the unbruised cheek dimpling with a faint hint of a smile.

“Thank you for the coffee, and the flattery, but I need to get back to work.”

“I can’t, with a good conscience, let you leave here with your face all covered in blood, can I?” Kara gently objected, “just a quick CT. And maybe a bit of ice to reduce the swelling and bruising. I’ll have you out of here within the hour, I promise. I know people.”

“You  _ know _ people. What, are you in charge around here?”

With a light laugh, Kara smiled and shrugged, “not quite, but I was an attending at twenty-six, so … I’m kind of a prodigy. I’ll sneak you to the top of the queue, and there’s no one better at icing wounds in this place. I’m a bit of an expert.”

Brow furrowed with bewildered amusement, Lena let out a choked laugh of surprise, shaking her head and sighing. Taking another sip of coffee, she gave Kara a shrewd look. “Okay, fine. You have  _ one _ hour to patch me up, and then I’m getting out of this uniform and ordering a hit on my brother for being such a massive dick.”

“Seems fair.”

Buoyed by Lena’s agreement, Kara let her towards the elevator and down to a different floor, commandeering the CT machine and sheepishly shooing away an intern that shortly brought in their patient. It took fifteen minutes for the scan to complete, and Kara parked Lena in an empty examination room while she went to wait for the results.

She came back to find the paramedic reclining on the vinyl-covered bed with an air of relaxation, sipping her coffee and looking around the room with interest. Lena’s head lolled to the side as she watched Kara step back into the room.

“Give it to me straight, doc, is it bad?”

Letting out a quiet laugh, Kara dropped down onto a wheeled stool and pushed herself over to Lena’s bedside, depositing her armful of medical supplies onto the wheeled tray at the bedside.

“Well, your scan came back clean, which is good. So, I’ll just give you a quick checkup and send you on your way.”

“Do I get a lollipop afterwards?” Lena asked, giving her a playful smile.

With a reproving look, Kara picked up the blood pressure cuff and reached for Lena’s hand. “If you behave.”

Rolling her eyes, Lena willingly held her arm out and let Kara attached the cuff, pumping it up and reading her blood pressure, seeming satisfied with it and quickly removing it. Climbing to her feet, Kara stood over her, feeling her stomach flutter nervously as she pulled her stethoscope from around her shoulders and pressed it to Lena’s chest, murmuring for her to breathe in and out slowly.

“So, I’m curious … your brother sends a man to kill you, and you shove your hand into his chest to save his life,” Kara said after she’d finished listening to her heartbeat, removing the stethoscope and plucking a penlight from the pocket of her lab coat. “And you refuse to remove it, even knowing that the Kryptonite device could explode, even though it broke. Why is that?”

She flicked the narrow beam of light across Lena’s green eyes, admiring the colour as she watched her pupils constrict naturally, moving through her routine examination with practised ease, as well as relying on her enhanced senses. Without the stethoscope or blood pressure cuff, Kara could’ve told Lena she was well within normal ranges, but she was always thorough, if only for the sake of appearances.

“It’s my job,” Lena murmured, “it’s why I  _ wanted _ to do the job. To save people’s lives. To make reparations for my family, I suppose. It’s not my job to question whether or not they  _ deserve _ to be saved, and I won’t be the one to pass judgement on that. I’m not judge, jury and executioner - I’m … well, I’m just a paramedic. I bring them here for you to fix.”

“Your brother’s smart, right? What about you? You didn’t want to put your family’s genius genes to good use as a doctor?”

Sensing Lena tense up, Kara clicked off the penlight and tucked it back into her pocket, before snapping on a pair of gloves and tearing open an antiseptic wipe. Cupping Lena’s chin with her gentle fingers, Kara gave her an apologetic smile.

“This might sting a little.”

To Lena’s credit, she didn’t so much as wince or hiss in pain as Kara tenderly wiped the blood from her split cheek and lip, from her swollen nose and chin. There were no fractures or broken bones, but Kara handled her like glass, her fingertips precariously pressing against her fragile jaw with the knowledge that she could crush her skull with a careless touch. It had been one of the hardest things for her to adapt to on Earth, one of the things she’d always worried about when fixing people, that her strength and abilities might hurt instead of heal. 

“My mother’s a doctor,” Lena said, before halting, a wry smile twisting her split lip, “or, well, she  _ was _ . Her medical license was stripped from her.  _ She  _ became judge, jury and executioner, taking patients to illegally experiment on, and the like. I’m sure you’ve heard; it was quite the scandal in the medical world.”

“Mm,” Kara hummed, offering no prompting for Lena to continue unless she felt like it.

Tearing open another wipe, Kara resumed her careful dabbing, slowly wiping away the flaking crust of dried blood caked to Lena’s mottled skin. She heard Lena swallow thickly, a painful lump in her throat as she thought about a private memory, something that clearly upset her. Kara wanted to tell her to stop, but it wasn’t for her to decide.

“Well, I got accepted into medical school. My whole life I wanted to be a surgeon too, you see. And then … well, I changed my mind. With everything that happened with my family … I thought it was best if I just- if I let other people fix them. If I never had the chance to operate on them, I wouldn’t be tempted to let bad people die on the table, to play God like the rest of my family. I chose to ferry them to hospitals instead, and then let someone  _ else _ decide their fate. I guess I just didn’t want to find out if I- if I had it in me to be like them. Like my family.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, it’s a noble cause,” Kara softly murmured, setting the rust coloured wipe aside and opening up a clean swab.

Squeezing some antiseptic fluid onto the swab, Kara met Lena’s clouded gaze and gave her a soft, crooked smile, before she cupped her chin again and delicately dabbed the swab onto the cut on her cheek. She felt Lena stiffen beneath her touch and tenderly stroked her chin with her thumb, trying to be quick.

“Doctors can only save so many lives without paramedics dropping them off here for us; each person you bring here is a testament to your determination to save lives. And if that’s not convincing enough, I’m not sure many people would save their would-be-assassin. That in itself speaks to what kind of person you are. A real-life hero.”

Letting out a quiet scoff of laughter, Lena arched an eyebrow, “well, I’m hardly on Supergirl’s level.”

Waving a hand dismissively, Kara gave her a warm smile, eyes gently crinkling, “eh, I think she’d agree with me, if she were here right now.”

“You seem awfully sure of yourself, seeing as we only met a little under three hours ago.”

“Ah, well, when you’ve got your hands trapped between a man’s lungs alongside someone else, I feel like it gives you a little bit of a grasp for their sense of character. A little bit of camaraderie, for sure.”

“Oh yeah?”

Shrugging, Kara gave her a knowing look, her eyebrows rising and falling quickly as she set down the swab and picked up an ice pack. “For me at least. I like to think I’m a good judge of character.”

“And what judgement have you come to, doc?” Lena asked.

Her hand covered Kara’s as the ice pack was pressed to her swollen face, a dark bruise already ringing her half-swollen shut eye. Lena still managed to muster some humour, despite that, her green eyes twinkling with amusement as she let her legs dangle over the side of the bed, watching as Kara removed her gloves and disposed of the used supplies .

“That you should  _ really _ keep your hands out of other people’s chests. Or … you know, maybe do it more often so I have a reason to see you around here.”

“That depends entirely on whether or not I’m getting a lollipop after this.”

With a laugh, Kara fished into the pocket of her white coat and procured an orange lollipop, a packet of  _ Jolly Ranchers _ and a toffee, holding them out in her hand with a sheepish look on her face. “I have a sweet tooth, so I always come prepared.”

Plucking the lollipop from her hand, Lena bit off the wrapped and popped it in her mouth with a crooked smile, “then I guess I’d better start looking for the next chest wound to shove my hands into. Perhaps an abdomen, if it’s not too messy.”

“You know, I’m not entirely sure if you’re joking or not,” Kara chuckled, tucking the toffee back into her pocket and tearing open the  _ Jolly Ranchers,  _ popping a cherry flavoured one into her mouth and holding the packet out to Lena. “I almost don’t want you to be.”

“I guess you’ll find out next time you see me.”


End file.
